John Terry celebrated his 400th Premier League appearance by scoring a crucial goal and helping his side come from behind to take all three points against Southampton.
It did not start well for the Blues as everyone had barely gotten over their surprise that Michael Essien made the first XI before the Ghanaian midfielder handed the initiative to our opponents with an awful backward lump towards his own goal in the first minute. Jay Rodriguez capitalised on Essien’s dreadful error and his side into the lead.
The Saints then sat back a created little thereafter but Chelsea were still very poor and Essien wasn’t done giving the ball away as he conceded possession several times over the first half, although it is hard to put the blame on him because he has barely played over the past few months and was probably as surprised with his selection as the rest of us.
Nevertheless Mourinho’s side once again found themselves in an uncomfortable position at home and began to take the game to their opponents after the break.
Ba came on to replace Essien in the second half and by this time Frank Lampard was already on the field having come on for Oscar, who picked up a knock, and the changes worked well for Mourinho. On the 55th minute Gary Cahill restored parity and seven minutes later Terry gave Chelsea the lead – on both occasions Juan Mata’s set-piece delivery came up trumps.
Mourinho said that Mata would get his chances in the coming matches and the Spaniard played very well in the second half and created a number of chances for the home side. He was increasingly influential as the game went on and it’ll be interesting to see if he can build on this.
The tireless Ramires was man of the match today and marked his performance near the end when he teed up Ba for the third and final Chelsea goal on the 90th minute. The Senegalese forward made a nuisance of himself and despite being bottom of the pecking order so far this season he may have earned himself a start at Sunderland on Wednesday seeing as Samuel Eto’o is injured and Fernando Torres was once again disappointing.
